NEW WORKERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 88, 15 April 1942, Page 5

NEW WORKERS

ELDERLY MEN START

SPEEDING WAR CONTRACTS A :i.riiier director of Xew Zealand artii'er.v . a fiO-year-old retired sheep lam:. • . a man "71 years younc" who J.'!'" 1 ' '<•«"* Home Guard all his spare nine ..n ex-fruit farmer who left lii: 1 1"imnent. and a chemist with •~>w ■ ol his profession behind 111111 !.'■ i- a ci uss- section of the ir.cn a !i<. have willingly surrendered ilit ■ i t'tii'cment to help in vital war pi«"l> ■ ! mil. A representative of The I nus's:i «m, Wellington, talked with then; m a hip industrial plant summed completely over to war work. Thee are hundreds of these men in a .ir industry who have Riven up tiie M-i period of life which, in normal limes, is the well-earned reward o:' most men. They are not in I lie', i I'.esent Jobs because they have 1.. " • k for money; thrv are there hccao they felt they had to work lor N'cvv Zealand. Tin ;' work is not clerical or the sedentary type usually undertaken by elderly men. tt is manual, six days a week, nine hours daily, easy for a man with all his wits stiil about him to master, painstaking Inn not over-arduous. The varied walks of life from which these new workers of the war have come shows that there is a place for every retired man who likes to follow their example. Colonel R. Sytnon. C.M.G., D.5.0., late Director of New Zealand Artillery. served his country in the Royal New Zealand Artillery from 1808 to when he retired. He served in the Great War and was twice mentioned in dispatches. This war found him over (10—he is now G.'i— nearly four years retired and past the age at. which he could re-enter the army. But he did not sit back and think that he could do nothing. He took a job where he could be one of the thousands behind the man in the front line. He is doing manual work in this big industrial plant. First "Bosh" For 38 Years Mr. T. C). Haycock, retired farmer, 09 years old, with six sons who have worn the King's uniform, had not worked for a "boss" for ;{8 years till he took his present job. He had heen retired seven years. His reason for "joining up" with the war work army was brief. "[ felt, along with many others now working with me, that as long os I could stand up, I should do my bit," he said. He spoke highly or the conditions of employment. Mr. Haycock comes from the Wairarapa.

Doing his first manual work is Mr. A. .J. Lindop, retired chemist. He was offered a number of jobs when war broke out, but elected to break his retirement for the type of work ho thought most urgent. He has a son overseas, and feels the money he now earns may help this son when he comes hack. Mr. Lindop was ]() years in Dannevirke; the rest of his professional life in the Wairarapa. Young .it 71 "I am 71 years 'young,' " said the next man, who has two sons overseas, one in the army and the other in the air force "flying deep into Germany." , This was a man who looked 20 years younger. He explained how he wanted to he in a job that would bo helping the job his boys were doing. There were lots of other work offering, but he thought it his duty to answer the call for labour in this particular class of work issued by the Ministers of Supply and Manpower. The days he enjoyed most of all, he explained, were those he spent with the Home Guard battalion to which he belonged, exercising in hill country. "We're not old," he replied half-indignantly, when asked about other elderly co-workers. A fellow worker, also in the same Home Guard battalion, here interposed that this 71-year-old fighter on both the civilian and army front was one of the best shots in the battalion. "I felt idle doing nothing to help the war," said Mr. John Shaw, who retired from fruit farming at Twyford, Hastings, two years ago. "I didn't know If I could do this job, but I found I could. There Is nothing very difficult about it. It was tiring at first, but I soon got over that." Mr. Shaw is 62. There were many others at thi& plant of the same age groups, circumstances and "will to work to win" spirit as those referred to. The few singled out made it plain that they wanted to speak for these others, rather than themselves. The executives at the plant spoke highly of the efficiency of these elderly patriots.